Musicology

Gregor, Joseph

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:38:26 +0000

Gregor, Joseph Leonhard Weidinger Thu, 04/01/2021 - 18:22

Joseph Gregor

26 October 1888 Czernowitz (now Chernivtsi, Ukraine) – 12 October 1960 Vienna

Joseph Gregor grew up in Czernowitz as the son of the city architect Josef Gregor. He came to Vienna in 1907 to study art history, German and music. He obtained his doctorate in 1911 with a musicological thesis, but his main interest had always been the theatre. After studying at the Wiener Hofoper, the Deutsches Theater in Berlin under the direction of Max Reinhardt and the University of Leipzig under Albert Köster, he returned in 1912 to Czernowitz to become a university music lecturer. He served during the First World War in the Tiroler Kaiserjäger regiment and as a Kriegswirtschaftskommissär (War Economy Commissar) but remained resident in Vienna. In 1918 he embarked on a career at the National Library, where he was entrusted after just two years with the establishment of a theatre department, whose head he became in 1922. He was also head of the Bundestheatermuseum (Federal Theatre Museum) founded in 1931 and was awarded the title of professor in 1933 and a few years later the rank of Oberstaatsbibliothekar (senior state librarian). When he applied as a writer for admission to the Reichsschrifttumskammer (Reich Literature Chamber) after the annexation of Austria to the German Reich, opinions as to his political reliability were split. He was thought to be sympathetic to the National Socialist movement, but as editor of the magazine Die Theater der Welt in 1936/37 he was suspected of being friendly with Jews and internationalists. He had already had to passed on his role as editor in 1937 to Karl Niessen, head of the Institute of Theatre Studies at the University of Cologne. The mistrust of the Ministry of Propaganda in Berlin combined with the efforts of his rival Niessen almost resulted in the theatre collection being moved to Berlin or Cologne and Gregor being removed from office. Thanks to Gregor's contacts and those of his staunch supporter Paul Heigl, director general of the National Library, the institute was not transferred and Gregor was left in peace in spite of the unfavourable political assessment by the NSDAP. He was ultimately able to enlarge the theatre collection during the Nazi era through donations, purchases and also Aryanization. Gregor retired at the end of 1953 and in subsequent years he lectured in the history of theatre at the Akademie der bildenden Künste (Academy of Fine Arts) and the Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst (Academy of Music and Performing Arts) in Vienna. During his lifetime he published an impressive number of articles about the history of theatre.

Since 1998 objects that Gregor had acquired during the Nazi era have been successively restituted.

Keywords

6 January 2019

Publications about the person / institution

Christina Gschiel, Joseph Gregor und die Theatersammlung der Nationalbibliothek in Wien – rastlose Tätigkeit im Interesse der Sammlung, in: Eva Blimlinger/Heinz Schödl (Hg.), Die Praxis des Sammelns. Personen und Institutionen im Fokus der Provenienzforschung (= Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung 5), Wien-Köln-Weimar 2014, 263–298, URL: doi.org/10.7767/boehlau.9783205793564.263.

Agnes Bleier Brody, Versuch einer Joseph-Gregor-Bibliographie, 1908–1958, Berlin 1958.

Publications by the person / institution

Joseph Gregor, Weltgeschichte des Theaters, Zürich 1933.
Joseph Gregor, Shakespeare, München 1935.
Joseph Gregor, Das spanische Welttheater. Weltanschauung, Poltik und Kunst der großen Epoche Spaniens, Wien-Leipzig-Zürich 1937 (Vollständig überarb. Neuausgabe München 1943).
Joseph Gregor, Perikles. Griechenlands Größe und Tragik, München 1938.
Joseph Gregor, Richard Strauss, der Meister der Oper, München 1939.
Joseph Gregor, Alexander der Große. Die Weltherrschaft einer Idee, München 1940.
Joseph Gregor, Kulturgeschichte der Oper. Ihre Verbindung mit dem Leben, den Werken des Geistes und der Politik, Wien 1941 (2. rev. u. erw. Ausgabe 1950).
Joseph Gregor, Kulturgeschichte des Balletts. Seine Gestaltung und Wirksamkeit in der Geschichte und unter den Künsten, Wien 1944.
Joseph Gregor, Oskar Strnad. Sein Vermächtnis an das Theater, Wien 1949.

Joseph Gregor/Karl Ecker, Die Theatersammlung, Wien 1948.

Luithlen, Victor Joseph Paul

acolono — Thu, 03 Sep 2020 14:39:19 +0000

Luithlen, Victor Joseph Paul

Leonhard Weidinger Fri, 03/26/2021 - 16:12

Victor Luithlen

20 May 1901 Vienna – 14 November 1987 Vienna

also Viktor Luithlen

Victor Luithlen, son of an official in the Ministry of Trade and Transport, obtained a doctorate in music at the University of Vienna in 1927 with a work on Johannes Brahms. After several years as an amanuensis (secretary) in the library and archive of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde (The Society of Friends of Music) in Vienna, he joined the Kunsthistorisches Museum in November 1938, where the collection of historic musical instruments had been separated from the sculpture and applied art collection and put on display in Palais Pallavicini with the inventory of the Gesellschaft für Musikfreunde. In the service of Nazi propaganda, he organized regular concerts and also performed on the piano himself. He was a member of the Reichsmusikkammer (Reich Chamber of Music) and the Reichsbund Deutscher Beamter (Reich Federation of German Civil Servants). Several documents from the Nazi era (political assessments, CVs) state that Luithlen applied to join the NSDAP in 1938. He was given NSDAP membership number 9,477.302 in January 1941 but no membership card. In 1942 he travelled to Paris on behalf of his superior Fritz Dworschak and the Generalreferat für Kunstförderung, Staatstheater, Museen und Volksbildung (General Office for the Advancement of Art, State Theatre, Museums and Culture) at the Reichstatthalterei in Vienna to acquire academic books, musical instruments and coins. In March 1945 he replaced Gert Adriani as depot manager in Lauffen. Exempt from military service on health grounds, he was regarded throughout the war as indispensable on account of his expert knowledge and "involvement in confidential Reich matters" (salvaging of art works). At the end of 1945 he stated before the Sonderkommission I. Instanz at the Staatsamt für Volksaufklärung, für Unterricht und Erziehung und für Kultusangelegenheiten (Special Commission of the State Office for Popular Enlightenment, Schools, Education and Cultural Affairs) that his application to join the NSDAP had been backdated for strategic reasons. The judgment in December 1945 took account of this argumentation and classified him as a minor offender, which meant that under the terms of the early cancellation of the atonement by minor offenders provided for in the National Socialist Act (BGBl. 99/1948) of April 1948, he suffered no further financial or professional restrictions. He worked until 1947 in Bad Ischl supervising the return transport of the museum objects stored in Salzbergwerk Lauffen before returning to Vienna and working for the Kunsthistorisches Museum. In 1952 he was appointed head and in 1958 director of the Collection of Historic Musical Instruments, where he remained until mid-1967. A recognized musicologist, he was involved in 1950 in the redesign and reopening of the house in Salzburg where Mozart was born. In 1960 he was elected president of the newly established International Committee of Museums and Collections of Instruments and Music (CIMCIM), and in 1965 its honorary president. In 1977 he was awarded the österreichisches Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst I. Klasse (Austrian Cross of Honour for Science and Art 1st class).

Keywords

6 January 2019

Publications about the person / institution

Alexander Rausch, Luithlen, Victor, in: Oesterreichisches Musiklexikon online, URL: epub.oeaw.ac.at/ml/musik_L/Luithlen_Victor.xml (3.12.2020).

Stephan Turmalin, Die Sammlung alter Musikinstrumente des Kunsthistorischen Museums in Wien während der Zeit des Nationalsozialismus, Wien 2018.

Literaturarchiv der Österreichischen Nationalbibliothek, Viktor Luithlen, in: Verzeichnis der künstlerischen, wissenschaftlichen und kulturpolitischen Nachlässe in Österreich, URL: data.onb.ac.at/nlv_lex/perslex/L/Luithlen_Viktor.htm (3.12.2020).

Publications by the person / institution

Victor Luithlen, Studie zu Johannes Brahms' Werken in Variationenform, Dissertation Universität Wien 1927.
Victor Luithlen, Führer durch die Sonderschau. Klaviere aus fünf Jahrhunderten, Wien 1939.
Victor Luithlen, Saiteninstrumente. Klaviere, Streichinstrumente, Zupfinstrumente, Wien 1941.
Victor Luithlen, Alte Musikinstrumente. Die Sammlung des Kunsthistorischen Museums in der Neuen Burg zu Wien, Wien 1954.

Karl Geiringer/Hedwig Kraus/Victor Luithlen, Johannes Brahms. Zentenar-Ausstellung der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien, Wien 1933.